Four or five well-placed loudspeakers match the envelopment of 12-to-24 channel arrays
Evidence
There is very good news. Large numbers of channels are not necessary to provide excellent facsimiles or reconstructions of enveloping sound fields. This is true whether the evaluating metric is subjective or objective. The optimal selection of four or five channels and loudspeakers can provide performance very similar to circular arrays of 12 or 24 loudspeakers. — , Toole, Floyd E - Sound reproduction-…, 1709
Categorization
- XREF: Challenges the channel-count arms race in immersive audio, echoing the reader’s broader interest in how technological over-elaboration often exceeds what perception requires. — connects to: Wide-dispersion speakers plus room reflections create listener envelopment.; Six or more equally spaced speakers imitate a diffuse array well; four do not; Larger speaker size relative to wavelength enables higher directivity